It has been a while since I posted anything on here. There is good reason for this, I have been busy building a DIY Remote control for my Canon 700D DSLR. Sure I could have bought one off the shelf, I could have bought one with an intervalometer. Deciding against this option, I decided to do some searching on google for such a project. Sure enough, many many sites, videos and posts on Forums later, I decided to bite the proverbial bullet and set out to build my own.

There is a point to this particular project, in fact there are a number of good points to this project.

Actually have a wired remote for the camera, always handy to have.

Make good use of the wired remote for Bulb exposures.

Gain insight to the wiring to use with an Arduino.

With all that in mind, along with reading the various posts and watching various videos, I am now faced with another set of questions. How do I switch the Shutter on and off using an Arduino? Can I use a transistor as a switch? That is, can the transistor act exactly like a conventional mechanical switch? So watching a number of videos, reading what information I could find, leaves me more confused than ever. There are a number of options, Solid State relays or conventional Relay as a worse case scenario. However, I am not giving up on the old transistors as my means to controlling my DSLR remotely.

The web site that I went with and found to be the most helpful can be found here: http://www.doc-diy.net/photo/eos_wired_remote/The information provided from www.doc-diy.net should allow you to decide on an all electronic switching option, or the manual option illustrated from the image below – NB: This is Not my Image and is copyright to the Website/Author.

The above image clearly shows the connections required to operate the Canon 700D and any other Canon that uses the 2.5mm socket, please note that not all Canons use the 2.5mm socket, so you should ensure that before embarking on this project, that you can source the correct plug for your camera. Another thing to note is that you can use this method on any other DSLR that uses this method for remotely controlling Focus, Shutter and the obvious need for remote BULB exposure modes. Another thing to note is that whilst this is a DIY project, you must first understand that anything you do outside the realm of an off the shelf connection/accessories to any device, runs the risk of damaging the device. It is AT YOUR OWN RISK.

‘If in doubt, then don’t do it…’ is always a great way to protect that which is of value (including life). As this has been widely used and in many different techniques, I decided to go ahead and start the project. With only a few components required, some cable and the correct 2.5mm Stereo Jack Plug.

The list of components and tools is as follows and in no particular order;

The main thing to note is take your time, always use tools in a safe well lit area and secure manner.

Wiring the switches is relatively easy, as long as you use 1 side of all three switches as the common or ground part of the circuit. The other 3 connections are split into two areas.

Metering/Autofocus

Bulb and remote shutter control.

I used 2 switches for the Shutter control, one acts like the standard Shutter control/button on the camera itself, the 2nd switch is used for Bulb or timed exposures(Push to Make and Push to break). The remaining switch is the momentary NO (Normally Open), which is used to keep the camera active and use for activating the focus/metering logic on the DSLR – similar to the half push on the Camera Shutter control, the extra push(when using just the Camera), obviously activates the Shutter logic circuits on the DSLR.

So in simpler terms;

Button One – small momentary NO is the Focus/Metering control

Button Two – Medium Momentary NO is the Normal Shutter control

Button Three – Medium On/Off Switch for timed/bulb exposures

So the remaining connections you need to make are the two medium switches and the small switch for the focus/metering function.

In short (no pun intended), the two medium switches are wired in parallel whilst the smaller of the two is on its own circuit. as shown in the diagram above. That’s all there is to it. Once all the connections are soldered together correctly, check the wiring and functionality by testing with a Multimeter. This is to ensure you have everything connected correctly, also ensure that you know that nothing is set to ‘On’ when you plug this into your Camera.

If everything is working on the Multimeter as expected, you can take the next step and connect to the camera. Once connected, switch the camera on and select Manual control. Using the controls on the camera, select ‘Bulb’ Try the metering control button first on your newly created remote and you should see some reading appear in the viewfinder and on the screen depending on how you have your camera setup for normal operation. By default, I always use the Screen. If your camera responds and displays a reading, then you know that your control is working, now try the Shutter, either of the two medium controls, momentary or the On/Off button. Your camera shutter should activate depending on what time mode you selected and which button you used on the remote. If the momentary was used and the shutter is not set to bulb, it should stay open then close for the time it was set to on the camera eg: 1/50th should give you just that. If you have continuous Shutter mode on, it will keep taking pictures until you release the button on the remote. It will also continue to take pictures if you used the On/Off button until you press the button to the off position.

Once you are happy that everything is as it should be, secure any loose cables, tidy up the project and complete the build by closing the box and consider yourself done with this project if that is all you wish to accomplish. For me, not so much. I need to work on a circuit and control via the Arduino. More on this, as and when I get close to a resolve to the questions and answers that keep me looking on the net.

I recently purchased my first Arduino, well not quite. It’s actually an Arduino based RedBoard from SparkFun. Details below

RedBoard programed with Arduino

RedBoard programed with Arduino

SparkFun Inventors Kit – Littlebirdelectronics

Features:

ATmega328 microcontroller with Optiboot (UNO) Bootloader

USB Programming Facilitated by the Ubiquitous FTDI FT231X

Input voltage – 7-15V

0-5V outputs with 3.3V compatible inputs

14 Digital I/O Pins (6 PWM outputs)

6 Analog Inputs

ISP Header

32k Flash Memory

16MHz Clock Speed

All SMD Construction

R3 Shield Compatible

Red PCB!

So far the kit has given me a brief insight to the world of programming and a gentle start back into electronics. Finding the time to fit all this in with the day job, travel time and that certain need to eat and sleep, is equally as fun.

I purchased this kit from a supplier here in NSW – Little Bird Electronics the kit came with the usual components to get you started, ranging from the simple to more difficult to test your attention to detail skills. The good thing about this kit, it starts you on a path of discovery, learning and a wealth of information from talented individuals who know these devices like the back of their hand. There is a plethora of sites, forums and blogs that have more code and resources than you can shake a stick at. For me it’s early days and already have decided on a number of projects I would like to try out and use in a real world environment. My first plan is for a remote control for a DSLR, second project would be some form of a weather station. Other plans or ideas are going to be based on Music and the Model rail.

For the music side of my projects, MIDI connectivity and control, possibly look into CV – Control Voltage to work with the Minimoog Voyager XL which by design is CV controlled and based. The model rail will be a completely different story. Sensors by the ton and what will they do for running Locomotives and trying to automate to some extent? The outcome of this is to be decided on how much automation I want or need. Being too dependent on automation can be a bit of a spoiler, however there is nothing wrong with a helping hand, plus adding further interest always helps.

I have already added one project to my list of things to do and itemized in my Current Projects – location of which really needs to be moved from its current location I think.

It’s great to have a Friday off, making my weekend a long weekend, that’s always a winner. However, i cannot start any of the things I need to do today as there are workmen in the back garden, working on the sewer at the base of the garden. The joys of having an easement on your property. Thus far they have removed whatever blockage was in the main sewer, I can tell by the stench that has bubbled its way through the toilets in the bathrooms. Thankfully our sewer lines must be free of incident, either now or before.

So whilst I wait for them to finish, I thought I would have a look round YouTube and Google+. Yes I am bored. Google+/YouTube or GooTube or YouGle as I call it, has changed in so many ways. I could blame Google, or maybe its the people on YouTube these days. It could also be the fact that people have become painful and awkward. It seems that people’s boredom threshold has decreased, attitudes have changed, mentality has for the want of a better expression, gone to the dogs (polite version of my original thought) and finally, it seems that the only thing that interests us are no-name/no-talent reality TV which appears to have destroyed our perception of what is ‘entertainment’ these days!

My time on YouTube wasn’t for naught. I managed to find some information I need for my future projects. I have already started bookmarking video’s and pages relating to what I need to make an informed decision. All that remains now is cost. I want this to be as frugal as possible, I don’t want to be spending hours of my time and not make any progress, nor do I want to spend copious amounts of money. Start simple is always the best option. But, what is simple these days? What qualifies as being a good but cheap investment? These are the questions I need to answer. I also need to look at what I can use these devices for, can I use them in my Music? Can I also use these for the Model Rail project? I also need to get my head around the coding, can I start to learn C/C++ without banging my head against the wall and end up with a lot of cheap stuff lying around gathering dust?

Starting back seemed like a great idea at the time, except, adding all those details, images, oh…and the text part, yes writing takes time. I know Rome wasn’t built in a day, however, trying to make good use of this site by adding worthwhile content on here is going to take more than one night. So its important to get this right from the start, making sure that whatever I post on this blog fits with whatever appearance this site takes.

I could have used Dreamweaver or some other html editor to create a static based website, then update the pages ‘as and when’ I get round to it. That is a little more time consuming and personally, very distracting and time consuming, especially when there are so many ready built options, that create dynamic pages such as WordPress and a dozen other Blog applications that allow you to just login and post. No hassle.

For now, its a simple case of starting to buildup the relevant pages required to fulfill the reasons why I started this website back up.

After a long time away from blogging, losing my old site, including backups of my old blog. I now find myself starting from scratch. Am I upset? In short, the answer is no. Sure there was some good content on the old blog, mostly it was just a whole lot of nothing.

There is good reason for all of the above, mainly the part about losing my site and the blog but more on that later. For now, it is a work in progress as to what makes the cut here and maintaining the site to keep it fresh.

The plan is to direct my attention towards more technical matters, an online self help for me and anyone else that cares to drop by. Content to be posted include the following items, some of which I have already started;